1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a rotary internal combustion engine of the rotary vane type and more particularly to a novel movable rotary engine comprising in combination a movable vane rotary air compressor section and a movable vane rotary power section wherein said compressor section and said power section have substantially identical movable vane rotor assemblies. The movable vane rotor assemblies synchronously rotate within respective compressor section and power section cylindrical chambers and, while rotating, the compressor delivers compressed air to a power section air intake port to compartments within the power chamber, said compartments being formed between successive vanes of a power vane rotor assembly as the power section rotor assembly rotates past the air intake port. Upon further rotation of the said compartment containing compressed air, past the air intake port, fuel is injected thereinto through a fuel injection port means forming an air-fuel gas expansion mixture which is thereafter ignited by an igniter means causing mixture expansion against compartment surfaces, with a greater area being exposed by a forward vane and thereby forcing the rotor to continue rotating past an exhaust port, each compartment so formed in succession continuing through the same cycle. The compressor section has an air intake port at a location where the compartments between adjacent vanes have the greatest volume and the compartments change to the smallest volume at the area of the compressor exhaust port. Each compartment of each compressor or power section continues through the same cycle as hereinabove described as the movable vane rotor assemblies rotate.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Rotary internal combustion engines are becoming increasingly recognized as replacements for the piston engine currently in wide use particularly in the automotive field. The rotary engine has fewer moving parts and promises greater fuel economy than the conventional piston engine. A number of rotary engines have been invented, one which has been used extensively being the two lobed epitrochoidal chamber having generally triangular shaped rotor type. This type of engine is difficult to manufacture and requires exacting chamber and rotor design parameters and the seal means are very critical. Good fuel economy and high compression ratios are difficult to achieve and high horsepower to weight ratios are also difficult to obtain, as they are with piston engines currently in use.
The movable vane rotary internal combustion engine has promise of overcoming some of these problems in that it is relatively simple to construct, it provides improved fuel economy and the octane of the fuel is not critical. It is possible to achieve high compression ratios with this engine, and high horsepower to weight ratios are readily obtainable. The majority of the inventions describing rotary vane internal combustion engines employ relatively complex rotor assemblies. In some, super chargers have been used to increase the compression ratios and auxiliary compressors have also been used for this purpose to deliver compressed air or compressed air-fuel mixtures to the power chamber.
Various vane rotor assemblies have been employed wherein the construction features range from those wherein the vanes are movably mounted in the rotor and are an integral part of it, with each vane located in a cavity in the rotor and being inwardly and outwardly movable therein, to those wherein the rotor and vane assembly are distinctly separate assemblies but are assembled to co-act with each other within the chamber defining the interior of the engine. One of these is described in Armstrong U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,381, which discloses a rotor mounted eccentrically in a cylindrical main chamber having a rotatable shaft mounted axially in the main chamber and passing through the interior of the rotor. A plurality of vanes are mounted on the shaft and pass through the rotor to engage their outer edges in sealing relation against the internal cylindrical surface of the main chamber, thereby defining a plurality of compartments of variable volume as the rotor rotates. One of the vanes has its inner end fixedly connected to the shaft with other vanes being rotatably mounted thereon. The rotor is bearingly mounted in the chamber end-plates and is thereby maintained in its eccentric position. The shaft onto which the vanes are mounted serves as the powere transmission means for the engine and passes through the rotor as aforesaid and also extends sealably through bearings in the main chamber end plates. This type of construction is relatively complex and presents a difficult design problem in sealing the expansion gases in the compartments formed by successive vanes as they rotate.